My day started at around 2am this morning. I was sleeping soundly when something woke me up. I turned over to go back to sleep when the noise happened again and all of a sudden it hit me: 'CRIPES, Reggie needs the loo!' I jumped out of bed, pulled some clothes on and sprinted downstairs to take him outside to relieve himself. He looked a bit surprised to see me, but seemed pleased, and accompanied me quite happily out into the garden. It was as we reached the bottom of the steps and Reggie started looking around for his ball that I realised two things. One: I had my hoodie on back to front, and two: he had probably just been barking in his sleep. Nevertheless, he managed to squeeze out a wee, and we both plodded back up the steps to the warmth of our respective beds.
Next thing I knew, my alarm had gone off - twice - and Lucca was scratching at the bottom of the mattress trying to wake us up. Once again, I leapt out of bed (a little less enthusiastically this time), pulled on some exercise clothes, and headed downstairs to feed the cats, take Reggie out into the garden for more toilet duties, feed Reggie his breakfast, let the geese out for the day, and eventually to get the bike and turbo trainer out.
Today was a Lanciole work day for Stuart, so he wasn't far behind me in getting up and sorting out all of his tools for the day ahead. While I started my exercise, he gave Reggie a run around in the garden before sorting out a packed lunch and having some breakfast. At about 8.40am, Stuart left for the day, leaving me home 'alone' - or alone as you can be with two cats, two geese and a dog.
After a shower and some breakfast, I turned my attention to my first task of the day. A couple of days ago I had received an official letter inviting me to have one of those three-yearly tests that we women know is a necessary evil, but which we would avoid (like the plague) if there was any viable alternative. Here in Italy, rather than you making an appointment for a convenient date and time, an appointment is made on your behalf and you are simply sent a letter telling you when to attend. First of all, I was amazed by the efficiency of the system - I'd registered for my health card less than two weeks ago - but more to the point, I'd already had one of 'those' checks before I left the UK earlier this year and I neither required nor fancied the indignity of another. Since the appointment made for me was for 2nd December (just a few days away), there was nothing else for it but to telephone the number given on the letter and explain that I didn't need the test at the moment.
I did some preparation by writing out some sentences that I thought would be helpful, then dialled the number and held my breath. The line went straight through to a recorded message, so I hung up before trying again a couple of minutes later. This time, I worked out that the recorded message was telling me that all the operators were busy at the moment, but that I should hang on until someone was free to answer my call. So I held, and within 60 seconds there was a real Italian-speaking person on the other end. 'Here goes,' I thought. I managed to get my pre-prepared sentences out and, much to my amazement, they seemed to have been understood. I understood that the person on the other end was asking for my name and date of birth, which I gave them, and then they were telling me that they would arrange to call me for the test once again in the standard three years' time - April 2017. I was dumbfounded. I appeared to have done exactly what I had set out to do! I thanked the person on the other end of the phone profusely before hanging up and fist-pumping the air. I was thrilled to have completed my first ever telephone call entirely in Italian, and having achieved what I wanted!
High on my success, but with no-one to tell, I turned my attention to work, followed by a toilet trip for Reggie, and so the rest of the morning went. I had a quick chat with Sue when she called mid-morning, and a lovely long chat with Allison at lunchtime.
The afternoon went much as the morning had done (work/Reggie garden trip/work), and before I knew it I could hear the car drawing up outside and it was time to shut the computer down and go and help Stuart unload yet more logs from the car. I then put the geese to bed while Stuart put all his tools away and, with the cats safely indoors, we got ready to take Reggie out for a walk in town.
We drove to the main square in Pescia, then walked around the back streets of the town and along the river for a bit until we felt that both Reggie and we had had enough of a walk for one day. Reggie met two dogs today that he simply sniffed noses with - we were proud of him! Of course, there were also two or three that he growled/barked at, but progress is progress! Town was quite busy this evening and we could tell that he was relieved to get back to the car at the end of the walk - he was happy to jump into the car if not actually happy to go into his travel cage of his own accord.
When we got home, we gave Reggie his dinner, gave the cats their dinner, then opened a beer, lit a fire and settled in for a quiet night and the start of a much needed weekend.
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